Eat, Pray, and....Shop? Pt. 1

Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for?

We often hear that question being repeatedly asked during Thanksgiving Holiday. For me personally, Thanksgiving serves as a reminder for me not to take anything for granted. Not only tangible stuff but even intangible ones we ought to be grateful for, like quality moments with your loved ones, forgiveness, love, etc.

So, this past Thanksgiving weekend was a really fun one for me. Of course, like many other people in the US, I had a very nice dinner with my family and by that I meant both of my immediate and extended "family". So on Thursday my fam and I went to Thanksgiving service at church and like they always do year after year, we had a sumptuous meal set up at the end of the service.

The camera that was given away

Now when speaking about Thanksgiving, one cannot go without mentioning Black Friday as well. It's like salt and pepper, bread and butter, batman and robin, lilo and stitch, spongebob and patrick....err yea..you get the idea. If you don't know what Black Friday is-well too bad for you, lol- it is the "Holly Day" for all shopaholics out there. Yes, almost every store in the country will have sale and big discount offerings. Some are really good deals, but some are not really worth the rush as you find out you really ain't savin' that much. The big idea is to get people to the store. So, that night (Thursday)  I was determined to go doorbusting. The store that I picked was Old Navy. I didnt go there for the clothes really, I was more into the waterproof cam that they gave out for free with $40 purchase for the lucky early birds. Earlier that day, I had snatched a pile of sale catalog and flyers the size of yellow pages from the newspaper at work and saw the ad. I thought if I can get it I can definitely use it for my upcoming trip underwater lol (I later found out that you can only use it up to certain depth which is quite shallow for what I need). You see, since a good number of stores and malls open at midnight, people will camp wait in line hours before before the doors opened. And let me tell you, these people are not playing. They come with a mission and wholehearted commitment to fulfill that mission, so once doors are opened they could careless about who they cut in line, who they push, trip over, elbow, step on...and so on..and so on..it gets ugly..really. All for the sake of getting whatever item they are aiming for. Eyes on the prize, baby!

So I went to the store at 10:45ish...now..you might think that's early enough, huh..well, you're wrong. By the time I got to there I was probably the 35th in line, and within 15 mins after there were probably already 40 more people in line behind me. craziness! So, long story short, turned out that store only had 40 cams to giveaway for the first 40 people/group in line with a wristband that they handed out (1 per person or family). With that being said, technically, I was supposed to get it. However, since a lot of people in line were there with friends and family and there was really no clear divider that separates one person/group from the next one, everyone got mixed up and there was no way to tell who's with who. Such a bad organization. So, at the end, I walked away with none. I was so upset not because I didn't get the cam, but more so because I basically wasted 1 1/4 hr. of my time for nothing. Oh well, lesson learned. Next time, get there earlier! lol.

All in all, it was a fun experience. I was due at work at 7am the next morning. Though my eyes were already resembling those of raccoon, I managed to survive 8 hrs of job..feeling grateful that I have one =)

To be continued....